The Regional Government, through the Regional Secretariat for Youth, Professional Qualification and Employment, will open, from the 21st of June to the 26th of July, the application period for the Incentive System for the Development of Handicrafts (SIDART) for the current year .
According to the order, published today in the Official Journal, the applications, aimed at individual artisans, collective persons in any form or designation and artisanal associations, provided they are properly licensed and have an “artisan’s certificate”, must be made exclusively online, on the website of the Handicraft and Design Center of the Azores (CADA) on the Internet, at www.artesanato.azores.gov.pt.
Financial support varies between a maximum of 20 thousand euros and a minimum of 100 euros, non-refundable, up to a limit of 50% of the eligible expenses in the case of applications from the islands of São Miguel and Terceira and 60% in the remaining islands of the Archipelago.
Thus, in addition to the budget allocation, continuous support for handicrafts is ensured in areas such as training, qualification and innovation of the artisanal product, marketing, promotion, as well as investments in production structures and equipment of the Artisanal Production Units.
The Government of the Azores also defends that it is necessary to promote greater democratization of the support provided for in SIDART, with a view to a true affirmation of artisanal production as a dynamic, innovative and sustainable sector, which actively contributes to the richness and diversity of cultural heritage and for the economic development of the Azores.
Advocating greater production capacity, better production quality and more competitiveness, the regional executive considers it very important to invest in the creation of new products, along with a greater focus on new distribution and marketing channels, namely in global e-commerce platforms, giving international dimension to endogenous products, as well as to our innovation and culture.